24. Touching Jacob, however,
that which he did at his mother’s bidding, so as to seem to
deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be attended
to, is no lie, but a mystery. The which if we shall call lies, all
parables also, and figures designed for the signifying of any
things soever, which are not to be taken according to their proper
meaning, but in them is one thing to be understood from another,
shall be said to be lies: which be far from us altogether. For he
who thinks this, may also in regard of tropical expressions of
which there are so many, bring in upon all of them this calumny; so
that even metaphor, as it is called, that is, the usurped
transferring of any word from its proper object to an object not
proper, may at this rate be called a lie. For when he speaks of
waving corn-fields, of vines putting forth gems,24172417 “Gemmare.” of the bloom of youth, of snowy
hairs; without doubt the waves, the gems, the bloom, the snow, for
that we find them not in those objects to which we have from other
transferred these words, shall by these persons be accounted lies.
And Christ a Rock, and the stony heart of the Jews; also, Christ a
Lion, and the devil a lion, and innumerable such like, shall be
said to be lies.241824181
Cor. x. 4; Ezek. xxxvi. 26; Rev. v. 5; 1 Pet. v. 8 Nay, this tropical expression
reaches even to what is called antiphrasis, as when a thing is said
to abound which does not exist, a thing said to be sweet which is
sour; “lucus quod non luceat, Parcæ quod non parcant.”
Of which kind is that in holy Scripture, “If he will not bless24192419Job ii. 5,
benedixerit: as LXX.
εὐλογήσει: E.V.
“curse.” Thee to
Thy face;” which the devil saith to the Lord concerning holy Job,
and the meaning is “curse.” By which word also the feigned
crime of Naboth is named by his calumniators; for it is said that
he “blessed242024201 Kings xxi. 10,
13. LXX.
εὐλόγηκας: E.V. “didst
blaspheme.” the
king,” that is, cursed. All these modes of speaking shall be
accounted lies, if figurative speech or action shall be set down as
lying. But if it be no lie, when things which signify one thing by
another are referred to the understanding of a truth, assuredly not
only that which Jacob did or said to his father that he might be
blessed, but that too which Joseph spoke as if in mockery of his
brothers,24212421Gen. xlii and
David’s feigning of madness,242224221 Sam. xxi. 13 must be judged to be no lies, but
prophetical speeches and actions, to be referred to the
understanding of those things which are true; which are covered as
it were with a garb of figure on purpose to exercise the sense of
the pious inquirer, and that they may not become cheap by lying
bare and on the surface. Though even the things which we have
learned from other places, where they are spoken openly and
manifestly, these, when they are brought out from their hidden
retreats, do, by our (in some sort) discovering of them, become
re492newed , and by renewal sweet. Nor is it that they are
begrudged to the learners, in that they are in these ways obscured;
but are presented in a more winning manner, that being as it were
withdrawn, they may be desired more ardently, and being desired may
with more pleasure be found. Yet true things, not false, are
spoken; because true things, not false, are signified, whether by
word or by deed; the things that are signified namely, those are
the things spoken. They are accounted lies only because people do
not understand that the true things which are signified are the
things said, but believe that false things are the things said. To
make this plainer by examples, attend to this very thing that Jacob
did. With skins of the kids, no doubt, he did cover his limbs; if
we seek the immediate cause, we shall account him to have lied; for
he did this, that he might be thought to be the man he was not: but
if this deed be referred to that for the signifying of which it was
really done, by skins of the kids are signified sins; by him who
covered himself therewith, He who bare not His own, but others’
sins. The truthful signification, therefore, can in no wise be
rightly called a lie. And as in deed, so also in word. Namely, when
his father said to him, “Who art thou my son?”24232423Gen. xxvii.
16–19 he
answered, “I am Esau, thy first-born.” This, if it be referred
to those two twins, will seem a lie; but if to that for the
signifying of which those deeds and words are written, He is here
to be understood, in His body, which is His Church, Who, speaking
of this thing, saith, “When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves
cast out. And they shall come from the east and from the west and
from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the
kingdom of God; and, behold, there are last which shall be first,
and there are first which shall be last.”24242424Luke xiii. 28–30 For so in a certain sort the
younger brother did bear off the primacy of the elder brother, and
transfer it to himself. Since then things so true, and so
truthfully, be signified, what is there here that ought to be
accounted to have been done or said lyingly? For when the things
which are signified are not in truth things which are not, but
which are, whether past or present or future, without doubt it is a
true signification, and no lie. But it takes too long in the matter
of this prophetical signification by stripping off the shell to
search out all,24252425Enucleate cuncta
rimari wherein
truth hath the palm, because as by being signified they were
fore-announced, so by ensuing have they become clear.